446 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



the density of the forests in each State is portrayed by five shades of 

 colour. 



I must not end ray notices of some of the labours of our scientific 

 brethren in the United States without expressing my admiration of 

 the spirit and the manner in which the Government and people have 

 cooperated in making known the physical and biological features of 

 their country, and my conviction that the results they have given 

 to the world are, whether for magnitude or importance, greater of 

 their kind than have been accomplished within the same time by any 

 people or government in the older continents. How great would now be 

 our knowledge of the climate and natural features of India and of our 

 Colonies had the excellent Trigonometrical Survey of the one and the 

 territorial and Geological Surveys of the others been supplemented by 

 Reports such as those to which I have directed attention ! 



On the motion of Mr. De La Sue, seconded by Sir James Alderson, it 

 was resolved — " That the thanks of the Society be returned to the 

 President for his Address, and that he be requested to allow it to be 

 printed." 



The President then proceeded to the presentation of the Medals. 



The Copley Medal has been awarded to Professor James D wight Dana, 

 of Tale College, Newhaven, United States, for the numerous, varied, and 

 important contributions to Mineralogy, Geology, and Zoology with which 

 he has enriched science during more than fifty years. Professor Dana's 

 first published paper bears the date of 1823, while the year 1877 finds 

 him, as ever, vigorously at work. 



Commencing his career with the inestimable advantage of a sound 

 training in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, one of Professor Dana's 

 earliest writings is an essay upon the connexion of electricity, heat, and 

 magnetism. He then turned his attention to mineralogy; and, after 

 exhibiting his thorough study of both the crystallographic and the chemical 

 aspects of minerals by the publication of a large number of separate 

 memoirs, he produced a systematic treatise on mineralogy, which at 

 once took the place it still holds among standard works upon the sub- 

 ject. 



In geology, the diversity and importance of Professor Dana's labours 

 are not less remarkable. Not only have multitudinous detached essays, 

 emboctying the results of wide and accurate observations in all parts of 

 the world, and on all classes of geological phenomena, proceeded from 

 his pen, but his ' Manual of Geology,' of which a new edition appeared 

 two years ago, is at once a most clear and comprehensive statement 

 of the present state of geological science, and a complete, though 



